undefined | Better HN

0 pointsbreezeTrowel2mo ago0 comments

The concept did not originate in videogames. The whole thing started from a 4chan post where someone posted a photo of a yellow interior. Then, in 2022, Kane Parsons created a viral YouTube video based on that post. You can see it here: https://youtube.com/watch?v=H4dGpz6cnHo . The video game adaptations all came later.

Wikipedia has a good writeup here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Backrooms

0 comments

4 comments · 3 top-level

krapp2mo ago· 1 in thread

I've had dreams like this - I think a lot of people have - where you find yourself trapped in a space, an office or a mall or wherever, one common version seems to be a public bathroom - and you keep moving through an endless maze of doors that lead nowhere.

The article has it wrong, this was a archetype of the human collective unconscious well before 4chan turned it into a meme.

breezeTrowelOP2mo ago

Which article is wrongm Both the article and Wikipedia entry focus on The Backrooms which are a type of liminal space. Yes, liminal spaces have existed in fiction, dreams, etc. However, here the discussion is on The Backrooms and how that idea and aesthetic became very popular very quickly.

stackghost2mo ago

>The concept did not originate in videogames.

Yes it did. "noclipping out of reality" is a metaphor that is nonsense outside the context of videogame worlds. The 4chan copypasta that popularized the Backrooms meme doesn't mention video games but that particular post is not the origin of the backrooms concept.

There are literal backrooms you can noclip into existing in games that that predate that 4chan post by several years

carabiner2mo ago

90% of modern memes, internet culture, and therefore a huge proportion of current pop culture, originated on 4chan.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse